Tuesday, 7 December 2010
EXETER: Sanctuaire third as Salontyre springs 22-1 upset
FA Cup Third Round draw kind to Premier League Teams
As the all important Christmas period draws closer, football teams in all divisions will be looking to take advantage of the congested fixtures to finish the year on a high note and put themselves in best possible shape for the second half to the season. However, amidst the festive matches, the FA Cup begins for teams in the Premier League and Championship with the playing of the FA Cup third round.
As always, the third round draw of the FA Cup has thrown up some mouth watering matches but which, in an overall sense has been kind to the Premier League clubs, with only one all Premier League match to be played.
That said, a number of Premier League teams do have tough matches in prospect, none more so than Blackburn who host Championship leaders, QPR. Stoke City have also drawn a tough match, but will have home advantage at least against Championship promotion candidates, Cardiff City, who were finalists at Wembley three years ago.
Undoubtedly the tie of Round Three of the 2010/11FA Cup is the Manchester United v Liverpool encounter at Old Trafford. This will be the one all neutrals will be most interested in and will be a match, that Liverpool, arguably at least, will want to win more than United as it represents a clear cut chance for them to qualify for European football next season.
Defending champions, Chelsea have managed to draw a home game against Roy Keane’s Ipswich, but should have little difficulty in overcoming the Championship strugglers. While Arsenal will not have anything like the same confidence against Leeds United, who it might well be remembered put out Manchester United at this stage last year at Old Trafford, courtesy of a Jermaine Beckford goal. Leeds are a much improved side since then too and the Gunners home form is, to say the least, shaky.
Manchester City have an extremely difficult game away at Leicester in a match with more than a twist of irony attached to it. Neither Roberto Mancini or before him, Mark Hughes, have been able to garner a team worthy of being called champions, despite putting together the most valuable squad in the entire football league. Of course waiting for them at Leicester will be former boss, Sven Goran Eriksson, who many fans feel was unjustly treated by the Eastlands club when they sacked him three years ago. Leicester have improved enormously under Swede’ s guidance and are sure to put up a strong show against the
Monday, 20 September 2010
ITALY: Above Limits third in Milan for Simcock
Sunday, 5 September 2010
US Open: Federer has an easy entrance into the third round
The Federer Express is back. At least he seems to be really back in his best physical shape. When one follows a complete game by Roger, especially when he plays lower seeded players in the first rounds of the tournaments, one can’t help but to wonder if he ever gets bored. There is something about how he plays, about the way he puts out his offensive arsenal, that one can’t help but to feel some sort of a mix emotion. For one-side, you are just amazed at the talent and how blatantly superior he is in the court. On the other hand (and this might, and probably is just me) I can’t really help but expect the underdog to somehow just come out and defeat him.
I don’t know if I am alone here. I do have a bit of a thing for Cinderella stories. Particularly because given the odds, sometimes I do like to take my extra risks and howler and even put down my bucks for the underdog. Most of the times I lose my bet, but still, at least with Roger Federer on the early rounds, it makes his games far more interesting when I cheer for the guy who is on the other side of the court, struggling to complete the returns, and deal with the physiological and mental dimension of a player who can pull stunts like he did on the first round game of this year’s US Open.
Just throw out a search for Roger Federer’s tweener against Dabul in the first round over at Youtube. Oh men that was beautiful. You have to see the face on Argentinean Brian Dabul. Ok, under any other circumstances and perhaps except for one other player in the professional circuit, Dabul’s long volley would have been a winner. But Federer was able to run back, not only pull-off such a difficult stun as a tweener, but yet, turn it into a winning point. There was a face of hopelessness and perhaps awe in Dabul’s face when the camera makes its close-up. One can’t help but to feel sympathetic for the guy.
On his second round match, Federer Breezed by Andreas Beck with a 6-3,6-4,6-3. He was playing in the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the very warm and somewhat humid day. Sure, he has struggled since the Australian Open. Sure, there have been to early 4th round losses in both Wimbledon and Roland Garros. And yeah, we know what it meant for him to loose at England.
Sure, at Roland Garros he had to play in clay (which is by no means his forte) but also three of his four games were played under the rain. But then came a couple of injuries, and quite frankly a lot of inconsistency. He has had some success after his experience with new personal coach Paul Annacone. Yes, 16 came easy. He played some of his bets tennis over at Australia to win his 16th Grand Slam title. He has the focus and the motivation, and we know, he sure is got the talent to win this tournament. 17 is a lucky number. Nadal is out there too. But let’s face it, at Flushing Meadows Nadal has not been a solid contender.
One last detail before we go. The Argentinean who defeated him last year in the final is not. The road is not wide open for Federer. But he sure knows were it leads to, and how to get there. He’s been at that final 6 years in a row.